Mê Thú Cưng - Pet Magazine for Vietnam Số 4 | Issue Four | Page 72

Mê Thú Cưng Cứu hộ, Chăm sóc và Phúc lợi động vật tại Việt Nam 66 75 Development of the animal welfare movement in Vietnam - Part 1 By Catherine ‘Cat’ Besch Với trụ sở đóng tại Hội An, những nhà sáng lập của Tổ chức Bảo vệ Động Vật Việt Nam (VAWO), Catherine Besch và Emma Bolton, làm việc với những bác sĩ thú y địa phương và với cộng đồng để hoàn thiện sự đối xử với động vật thông qua việc giáo dục bảo vệ động vật, chương trình triệt sản/tiêm phòng vắc xin, giải cứu và nhận nuôi động vật, và xây dựng năng lực cho những nhóm bảo vệ động vật cũng như bác sĩ thú y địa phương. VAWO tìm kiếm những nơi tiêu thụ thịt chó và nâng nhận thức bằng ấn phẩm bảo vệ động vật tại Việt Nam. As they feel such passion for both their new country and the animals that inhabit it, VAWO is prepared to stick around for a long time in order to share their contagious love of animals in Vietnam. 70 Many animal lovers in Vietnam, both local and foreign, see animal suffering here on a daily basis and wish they could do something about it. There are rescue organizations, animal rights advocates, and animal shelters, and individuals who rescue animals on their own or foster or volunteer with organizations in the larger cities, but this may not be enough. As a founder of Vietnam Animal Welfare Organisation, I receive many emails from people asking what can be done about all these horrific situations for animals. Animal rescues and animal rights advocates focus on the individuals animals that we rescue from often horrible situations but often miss the big picture. Long term strategy is not on the agenda it seems and progress in the animal rights movement is often slow and very frustrating. I see my career in animal welfare differently now. My job as an animal welfare organization director is to put myself out of business and I believe this is the strategy that all organizations should work towards. We all need to be in the business of going out of business. In 40 years, I would like my organization and others like it to be irrelevant in Vietnam because society and the legal system will be capable of protecting animals with a culture that sees animals not as accessories to be used and consumed for human entertainment, but as living beings with rights that are the duty of mankind to uphold. I recognize that this is a tall order, and frankly, it may not happen in my lifetime and the possibility of me ever retiring from this work is just a dream. But this is a goal I would like to see animal lovers working towards. Below are steps I have outlined to achieve this goal in Vietnam: Legal recognition From what I understand, becoming a legal non-profit organization in Vietnam working with animal welfare is somewhat difficult, but I have not had many verifiable specifics on this from organizations or my staff that I have had research this. Becoming a registered nonprofit in a foreign country seems to be the fastest route to registration in Vietnam, regardless of the sector but this would be quite difficult for the Vietnamese organizations without foreign involvement. While my organizations is still going through our own lengthy registration Số 04 | Tháng Bảy & Tám 2014 | petmagazine.vn process in the US, I’ll admit I am no expert on the Vietnamese process and I would like the Vietnamese organizations to work together with all legitimate organizations to help them to understand the steps needed to achieve official registrat [ۋ